Hey, Jason Salas!

I absolutely love Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books. The writing is hilarious, the artwork is consistently beautiful, and the tone is magical. It’s no wonder that I chose Frog and Toad to parody.

When I create a parody book cover, I do my best to keep it in somewhat good taste. Weird Al Yankovic is the GOAT at this. He can make fun of anyone without harming their name or reputation. It’s quite the opposite – having Weird Al create a parody of you means you have cultural significance. It’s a badge of honor. And while I’m no Weird Al, I try to follow in his footsteps.

The key for this parody is to make it funny without mockery. At the same time, the names have to be similar enough so that the you can instantly know it’s a parody of a specific book. Few nouns/names rhyme with “frog” and/or “toad,” and even fewer nouns/names are humorous. I thought the Balrog was a good choice in that it’s demonic nature is the opposite of either Frog’s or Toad’s. That type of dychotomy lends itself to humor. On a similar note, I could have gone with Frog and Frodo, but that doesn’t ring as well and there’s no conflict. Frodo would probably have a fine time with Frog. Sure, it doesn’t have to be an LOTR character, but tell me some other character names that rhyme with “frog” and/or “toad.” I’ll wait.

Here’s the image I created with ChatGPT:

I lightened it up a bit, adjusted a few levels, and used Canva and my graphic design skills to create the parody cover in a 6″ x 9″ format:

After that, I placed the image in a book mock-up, also in Canva. I then took the book and placed it on an image of a bare table and brought in a shadow – both the table and shadow were images available in Canva as well.

I lucked out on this parody because the names of the two authors, Arnold Lobel and J. R. R. Tolkien, mesh together well. Also, that banner on the top should be funny for anyone who is familiar with the Frog and Toad books.